Company
Portfolio Data
Back to Company SearchVsi Aerospace, Inc.
UEI: NTMWFXMLQ4X1
Number of Employees: 4
HUBZone Owned: No
Woman Owned: No
Socially and Economically Disadvantaged: No
SBIR/STTR Involvement
Year of first award: 2010
2
Phase I Awards
1
Phase II Awards
50%
Conversion Rate
$249,758
Phase I Dollars
$499,178
Phase II Dollars
$748,936
Total Awarded
Awards
SBIR Phase I: A Collaborative Aerospace Vehicle Design Game in Support of Engineering Curricula for Grades 9-12
Amount: $149,782 Topic: EA
This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project involves the development of the Design environment for Aerospace Vehicles in Classroom Interaction (DAVinCI). DAVinCI is a collaborative, guided inquiry environment and game targeted for grades 9-12. This concept will integrate aerospace vehicle design and simulation tools with a design challenge-based game inspired by real world engineering problems. The environment is intended to be a hybrid of self-directed informal learning and software that can support in-class projects and topics and/or be utilized by students outside of class. Students will be guided through the required background in science, mathematics and engineering principles and encouraged to explore and utilize these principles in vehicle design. Engaging pre-college students with engineering design methodology is one way to advance Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education and increase the number of STEM college graduates. Aerospace vehicle design in particular is a powerful, versatile exciting platform to expose students to many facets of science and engineering, as it is truly a multidisciplinary endeavor. The anticipated Phase I results are beta tests of a proof-of-concept engineering design game containing a full chapter of content and design challenges. The broader impact and commercial potential of this project is a game that fills a niche for Grade 9-12 for engineering education. There are a number of planned avenues for initial commercialization, including sales to schools, parents, and of auxiliary features such as expansion packs and hobby kits. Future commercial opportunities will include stand-alone design-based games, design environments for hobbyists, and model generation tools for flight simulators. Engineering design promotes added interconnectivity and enrichment in STEM education. Improved connection to practical applications could also improve student performance in the sciences, technology, and mathematics. If successful, DAVinCI would be an excellent way to inspire students to consider careers in the sciences and engineering at formative points in their education. While there are numerous commercial software products to assist with the learning and teaching of science, technology, and mathematics, there are few products that attempt to address engineering education, and even fewer that attempt to do so in a largely informal manner that integrates game mechanics and design methodology. The tight integration of the design and game environments maintains the engagement of students to support classroom activities and continue reinforcement of concepts outside of class.
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase I
2013
NSF
Development of Tools and Methods for Characterizing the Impact of Control Surface Free-Play on Flutter
Amount: $499,178 Topic: N10A-T003
This STTR is aimed at developing methods and tools to characterize the impact of free-play on control surface flutter and overall stability and performance of the system. A successful completion of this two-phased STTR effort will lead to a modeling, analysis, design, and simulation tool that will provide a state-of-the-art capability for stability and performance analysis for any generic control surface configuration with free-play. It will also provide an optimal design capability for the design of control surfaces for new platforms. The modularity of the tool will allow model generation with varying degrees of fidelity using a combination of analytical, computational, and experimental identification methods. The nonlinear dynamic analysis capabilities in the tool will include newly developed nonlinear analysis techniques which will enable optimization of the design space for control surfaces as well as accurate predictions of stability and performance boundaries for existing platforms. The final product is envisioned to be a software that can: Model, simulate, and analyze the existing control surface geometries with free play and provide stability and performance assessment through useful metric. Optimally design new control surfaces for a specified stability and performance robustness with least restrictive free-play specifications.
Tagged as:
STTR
Phase II
2012
DOD
NAVY
Development of Tools and Methods for Characterizing the Impact of Control Surface Free-Play on Flutter
Amount: $99,976 Topic: N10A-T003
The aerodynamic performance of aircraft is significantly impacted by the aero-elastic dynamics of its control surfaces. In particular, the dynamics of flutter - an unstable self-excitation of structure due to undesirable coupling of structural flexibility and aerodynamics - has critical impact on the stability and performance of aircraft. The control surface flutter characteristics are affected by the unavoidable free-play which is inherent in the control surface due to manufacturing imperfections. There are no systematic methods to predict free-play effect on flutter. The proposed research will develop a comprehensive tool-suite which will: (a) provide state-of-the-art capability for stability and performance analysis of any generic control surface configuration, (b) allow modeling of control surface dynamics with varying degrees of fidelity using combination of analytical, computational, and experimental identification methods, (c) provide new analysis techniques to enable accurate prediction of stability/performance boundaries for existing platforms, and (d) provide optimal design capability for design of control surfaces for new platforms. The Phase 1 of the project will develope essential elements of the proposed tool-suite to prove the feasibility of the approach and demonstrate the capabilities by using 1950's WADC test data for all-movable un-swept horizontal tail.
Tagged as:
STTR
Phase I
2010
DOD
NAVY